At 5ft 5 his small stature leaves him looking up to most other world leaders.

But Nicolas Sarkozy has had an ingenious idea to make himself appear loftier.

The 55-year-old French President has asked for ‘short’ security men to protect him during his state visit to India.

Looking up: Nicolas Sarkozy and First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy visit
Fatehpur Sikri in India. At 5ft 10 Bruni-Sarkozy is five inches taller
than her husband

Short company: Sarkozy specifically requested 'smaller stature' bodyguards during his trip to India to make him appear taller

By surrounding himself with small stature bodyguards from the Indian foreign ministry perhaps Sarkozy hoped it would disguise his diminutive height.

India's Daily News and Analysis newspaper revealed how the president has made attempts to hide his size while meeting leaders in New Delhi this week.

The paper said: ‘A strange request from the foreign ministry's protocol office has left New Delhi's police and security agencies with a problem.

‘The ministry asked agencies to find personnel of smaller stature for the visit of French president Nicolas Sarkozy.

'This presents a problem because by their very nature, most security men are tall and well built.’

Tactial: Sarkozy positions himself in between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his wife, standing away from First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy

The demand from the pint-sized president comes after claims he banned workers over 5ft 6ins from attending a factory visit in June.

Sarkozy is said to have sent aides to the Turbomeca aeronautics factory in Toulouse to 'whittle out the tall ones' from any workers who may want to meet him during the visit.

Local paper the Republique des Pyrenees said: ‘It seems people at the factory decided it was better to yield to the president's wishes than face exile to the land of the pygmies.’

A year earlier Sarkozy was accused of deliberately picking short
people to appear alongside him in TV footage on a visit to the Faurecia
car parts factory in Normandy.

One woman worker at the plant said: ‘It was designed so that no one appeared bigger than the president.

'Access to the factory was restricted so that no one could be shown alongside him.’

Boost: As the French President and wife arrive in India, Sarkozy makes use of the plane steps to greet the Indian reception committee

In May 2009 Sarkozy was pictured using a footstool to make a speech during the D-Day commemorations in Normandy.

The decision to use the 6in wooden box is said to have been made because he was using the same lectern as Gordon Brown, Barack Obama and Canadian premier Stephen Harper - all considerably taller than Sarkozy.

And is not just colleagues who dwarf the president, his wife towers above him because she is five inches taller.

Statuesque Carla Bruni has said she dislikes comments about the flat-soled shoes she wears to minimise the height difference with her husband.

The 5ft 10in tall former supermodel said: 'I understand that the media prefers to talk about my pumps more than my global foundation or the fight against illiteracy.'

At 5ft 5in tall in his bare feet, Mr Sarkozy is even shorter than his famous predecessor Napoleon, who was an inch taller.

The president is also one of the world's shortest modern-day heads of state - only slightly taller than North Korea's Kim Jong-Il and Russia's Dmitry Medvedev, both of whom are 5ft 3in tall.

The small president’s height has been the source of many jokes in France and an advertising campaign caused scandal earlier this year when it mocked Sarkozy's stature.

The posters, by car hire firm Sixt, urged customers to rent a small Citroen C3 hatchback, with the slogan, 'Be like Madame Bruni, take a small French model'.